The application to demolish houses 26/26A in Stella Maris Street, Sliema and instead construct basement garages, ground, first, and second floor apartments and penthouse is once again on the agenda of a DCC meeting being held this week.

Should the DCC sanction this application, they will be blatantly infringing the 2006 NHLP building height limitation approved for Sliema’s Urban Conservation Area and in the process ruining the streetscape of Stella Maris Street.

I know for a fact that should this be the case, four residents in the street will be submitting an application to develop their properties.

As my various pleas to the Prime Minister as the minister responsible for Mepa and to the former Minister George Pullicino, who before the 2008 general election had posted to each household in Sliema a four page document about ‘Development in Sliema’, in which he had specifically quoted as an example the height reduction from four to two floors of Stella Maris Street, have gone unheeded, I call upon Mr Walker, chairman of Mepa to intervene and ensure that this application is not approved.

The little that is left of Sliema’s past should be preserved and not destroyed.

Martin Rossignaud

Sliema